POST-REDEVELOPMENT SPENDING SET

$143.1 million will go to existing projects and a couple of new ones

The next round of the city’s post-redevelopment spending adds up to $143.1 million.

While that’s a sizable sum for a program that was disbanded a year ago, it’s a far cry from the $4.8 billion originally planned over a 30-year period that the city vetoed last year.

The city’s independent oversight board briefly looked over the new list Tuesday and plans to vote on it Feb. 26 before forwarding it to the county auditor and controller and the state Department of Finance.

The list covers the July-December period and includes ongoing bond and loan payments for existing projects, management costs for city-owned properties and two new downtown housing projects not previously scheduled.

Those two projects are:

• Atmosphere, 205 apartments by Wakeland Housing and Development Corp. between Fourth and Fifth avenues south of Beech Street, with $11.6 million contributed from bond funds. The Centre City Development Corp. had approved the project design, but the end of redevelopment financing halted any further authorization, said Brad Richter of Civic San Diego, CCDC’s successor for post-redevelopment planning.

• Hotel Metro, 193 single-room-occupancy apartment units divided between two buildings on either side of 13th Street between Island Avenue and J Street, with $10 million in bond funds proposed. They would replace the Hotel Metro operated by the Alpha Project. The conceptual plan had not advanced too far before redevelopment ended.

Under the state’s laws that disbanded redevelopment agencies, the wind-down of the 60-year-old program allows previously approved enforceable obligations to continue to be paid from redevelopment area property taxes. But the balance must be passed on to the county, schools, city general funds and special districts.

Each six-month round of spending plans goes before a seven-member oversight board and then must pass muster with the county and the state. If there are any disagreements, the various agencies meet to try to work out a compromise. Ultimately, the state has the final say.

This fourth round of what’s called ROPS — the recognized obligation pay schedule — would be funded from $51.5 million in redevelopment property taxes, $51 million in bond proceeds, $33.2 million from grants, property income, land sales, developer payments and other sources, and $6.9 million in reserves.

While the state disallowed some nonhousing projects from being financed with redevelopment funds, it is allowing the city to use other bonds that already have been sold. San Diego hopes to use $10.8 million for nine projects — including $1.3 million for a minipark behind the North Park Theater, $2.8 million for Colina Park neighborhood sidewalks and streetlights, $2.9 million for North Chollas Community Community Park and $2.5 million for a new San Ysidro branch library.

The new half-year budget also includes a breakdown of administrative costs — $3.7 million, down from $4.2 million in the January-June 2013 spending plan. The new amount increases legal expenses by $115,000 and decreases administrative and project management costs by $618,749.